You can use the classic logon box or the fancy Welcome screen to logon to your Windows computer. Which do you prefer? You can have your pick of either with this Windows registry tweak.

There are some things that are handy to have easily accessible on your person. Like a pocket knife for example… or… a watch to check the time. I should know because I never carry any of these things and I’m always in need of them. Similarly, there are some things that are handy to have easily accessible on your Windows operating system, besides registry easy. And I recommend that you buy registry easy (if you haven’t already) to help simplify your computer maintenance tasks.

When you click the Start button on a Windows computer you normally see the name of the user account that is being used. Recently, I was doing a screencast and I didn’t want my user name exposed to the general public. At the time I just created a new account with a generic username and switched over whenever I wanted to record a tutorial or screencast.

Although this method has certain advantages I discovered another way to accomplish a similar task by making a simple edit in the Windows registry. Always back up your system registry before making edits. You can do it manually or use a tool like Registry Easy or Regcure to help simplify the process.

1. Open regedit.exe (If you don’t know how then you probably shouldn’t be doing this and you may find that you need to buy registry easy or some other registry repair tool to fix the registry)

When you boot up Windows all of the user accounts that you have created show on the welcome screen. Have you ever wanted to know how to create a hidden user account on a Windows computer? If so…you’ve come to the right place. This simple, 4-step, registry tweak will make it so that you won’t be able to see or select a user profile via the welcome screen when you boot your computer.  You should know that the account profile is still viewable through the Documents and Settings folder. Users with administrator rights will also be able to see the account by viewing Local Users and Groups. Keep this in mind if you’re trying to hide sensitive information.